Tamper evidence, and when you need it
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A shrink band is cheap. Discovering at a buyer's receiving dock that you needed one is not.
What counts as tamper evident
A feature that cannot be removed and replaced without leaving visible evidence. For honey that usually means a shrink or stretch band over the closure, a heat-induction seal bonded to the jar's land area, or a lid with a button that pops on first opening.
A plain lug cap or a continuous-thread cap with a plain liner is not tamper evident, however tight it is. Neither is a sticker across the lid that peels off cleanly, which is a common and mistaken substitute.
Where it is actually required
Honey is not in the small set of products with a specific federal tamper-evident packaging requirement, and general food labeling rules do not impose one. So for most direct sales you are not legally obliged to use it.
What creates the requirement in practice is your buyer. Grocery, co-op and distributor accounts routinely specify it in their supplier standards, and some state cottage food programs attach conditions of their own. Because the rules vary by state and by account rather than being uniform, this is a thing to confirm for your situation rather than assume from any general statement, including this one.
What a market table needs
Nothing, legally, in most places. Something, practically, if you want repeat custom.
A band signals care and it answers a question a cautious buyer has about an unbranded jar from a stranger. It also protects you: a jar that leaked in somebody's bag is a complaint, and a jar that was opened and put back on your table is worse.
Choosing between the options
Induction seals give the cleanest look and the best barrier, and they need a compatible liner and a sealing unit, which is a real capital step. Shrink bands need only a heat gun and are the usual starting point. Stretch bands need no heat at all and are the slowest to apply by hand.
Size the band to the closure and the neck, not to the jar, and buy a sample quantity before a case. A band a few millimeters out either slides off or will not go on, and the difference is not visible in a catalog photograph.
Containers whose finish takes a band or an induction seal
